


longing for the wild salt air

by Mars_and_Moon



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, MerMay, Near Death Experiences, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 02:46:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18791422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mars_and_Moon/pseuds/Mars_and_Moon
Summary: Dave had been sixteen, a little reckless and alone at the lighthouse he called home. His parents on a trip to town, they wouldn't be back for hours.He had been sixteen, a little reckless, and then alone at sea; a place he had considered all but another home his entire life.





	longing for the wild salt air

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for mermay! my friend and i thought of this, and now. i wrote it. but she drew concept art so really....

Dave Katz was a very happy lighthouse keeper. It was an odder profession to have in 2019, he knew that now they had fancy lights on boats and GPS and all those other things. But it was the family business; and Dave was nothing if not a family guy.

Dave had grown up next to sea. The salty air smell seeping into all of his clothes, comforting and familiar. He couldn't bring himself to live anywhere else.

Living that close to the sea had a few downsides, but so did living in any other place. And yeah, Dave had his fair share of run ins with strange aquatic life; but he lived happily with his cat, Bean.

Hell the only time he had ever considered leaving? He was sixteen years old, and he had stolen a small motor boat his father used sometimes, mostly on calm days to enjoy the sea in all of its beauty. Sometimes he would take Dave and his mother along with him. The three would enjoy a day out at sea; with food and jokes and family time.

Dave had been sixteen, a little reckless and alone at the lighthouse he called home. His parents on a trip to town, they wouldn't be back for hours.

He had been sixteen, a little reckless, and then alone at sea; a place he had considered all but another home his entire life.

Dave would admit it was definitely not his smartest moment in his life. But it had felt like forever since he had the silence of the sea, his mother at her day job and Dave at school most days.

And the sun had been shining, the water almost calling out to him worse than a siren called out to a sailor.

So there he was. It was beautiful, the soft sound of waves moving and the reflection of the sunlight made it so he was almost in a dream-like state.

And then, a storm came out of _fucking_ _nowhere._ The boat was softly drifting along the water, and the next thing he knew the water was choppy and he wasn't drifting calmly he was being tossed around, and he was far from the dream-like place he had been only minutes before.

He had never driven a boat without his father in it--hell, he technically wasn't supposed to be driving the boat--and most definitely never driven in a storm, his father refused to drive if it was even a little cloudy; so to put it lightly, he was _majorly fucked_.

A wave came--a big wave, a _giant_ wave, and like the storm it came out of nowhere. Dave might have started praying in that moment, he didn't remember the details super vividly but he could not be blamed for that. Because he was pretty sure he was about to die.

The next thing he remembered he was on on the shore again, the hard rocks digging into his back, and coughing like he was about to hack up his lungs; and he was seventy-five percent sure he wasn't dead. But not certain.

There was no boat in sight, but a there was a cute boy sitting next to him. Okay, make that sixty-five percent sure he was in some kind of afterlife. Mostly because that boy was fucking _beautiful_ . Curly hair, patted down and wet, smooth flawless skin, and _not_ wearing a shirt--or pants, but Dave didn't dwell on that fact.

He had his hand around Dave’s wrist, and the strangers skin was _freezing_ cold, even against the rain and wind; and he yelling at somebody in the direction of the ocean, somebody Dave couldn't see. The boy had glanced down for a second and saw he was awake. Dave noticed the strange boy had a confused frown on his face.

_The frown didn't suit his face_ , was Dave's first thought, his next was the fact that his eyes were even more _beautiful than the rest of him, if that was possible_ and it that was unfair to the _rest_ of humanity.

Maybe not the first thought he should be having considering he might be dead. But what could he do? It was there, and it had happened. No take backs.

Dave heard someone yell something at the boy--in the direction he had shouted at before, so there must be somebody else nearby--the strangers name maybe? The tone was almost angry, but more exasperated if Dave were in the right mindset to get fancy and descriptive. The word sounded like a name? And like it started with a K? Kevin? Kain? Klein? Dave couldn't tell.

That might have been to the fact that he was incredibly out of it; still coughing up seawater, and he had to force his eyes to stay open.

But he was probably not dead, if he was he wouldn’t be hearing somebody yelling in a unknown language. If he was dead it would probably be just him and the boy. Unless he was in hell. Dave tried to shake away thoughts like that, now was not the time to spiral.

He opened his mouth and tried talking to the stranger, thank him for saving his life, and then ask him seven hundred questions like _how the fuck did he save Dave’s life because it’s still storming outside and if you stepped foot in that water you should be dead?_ But he quickly got shushed with a finger pressed to his lips--his skin was still fucking freezing against Dave’s

"Next time--" he said, with an accent Dave couldn’t place; one that seemed to surround him. "--Do not boat in the storm."

The boy smiled changed into something else, something more mischievous. He leaned in closer--close enough for Dave to have felt his breath against his skin; startlingly warm against the contrast of  wind and rain and cold skin--and Dave could almost hear the smirk.

"The water is dangerous to humans," he whispered. And then warmth of his breath was gone, and the hand around his wrist. Dave was completely alone on a rocky beach, still coughing and very confused.

He squinted around the area, looking for a sign that he had just hallucinated all of that. He heard voices coming from the sea, and watched at two figures slipped in, and watch them swim down with tails splashing in the rough water behind the.   

He had never told anyone that. Never told his parents about what he had seen, took the punishment and the lectures for stealing the boat. Claimed he had just made it back before the storm had broken out. Didn't talk about the boy with the beautiful eyes or the freezing skin. Or the fact that he had seen people with fish-like tails, because Dave liked being seen as sane.

But fuck, he knew what he saw that day. And maybe a small part of him stayed near the ocean in hopes he would catch a glimpse of _whatever_ the things were. But that was his own personal secret that he didn't need to disclose.

**Author's Note:**

> i might.....expand on this universe.......mayhaps


End file.
